Astra
by Nivena
Summary: Yato and Yuki are Astras- teens with semi-telepathic abilities who were taken by the government and used as weapons. Flash forward three years, they're runaways in a world on the cusp of war, and the military will do anything to get their hands on them.
1. Prologue

_Woah, I might actually go back to posting every month! (imagine that!)_

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything**

* * *

_Prologue_

_._

**_Year 2073_**

Kofuku whistles as she weaves her way through the crush of mid-day shoppers on the weekend, frowning a little as she notices the sheer amount of them. Maybe it's a holiday coming up? She'll ask Hiyori when she gets home.

Suddenly, someone barrels right into her, knocking her off balance and almost upturning her groceries on the ground. She frowns in annoyance, and notices a small, perfectly cut out white circle, sitting on the floor next to her. She picks it up and almost drops it in surprise.

The image of a yellow eye stares back at her.

* * *

_If anyone has ever read my other story, Darkness, this is going to be written in a similar style to the Polaris Island arc. It'll skip around, and slowly reveal things as it goes on._

_Also, if you were wondering about the title, in Hinduism, an astra is a supernatural weapon presided over by a specific deity. Sound familiar? _

_(yes i am hindu how could you tell?)_

_Chapter 1 will come out either _**2/28 **_or _**3/28**


	2. Sense

_Been two months, huh? Already? Remember, scenes are not written in chronological order._

**_Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did_**

* * *

"Move!"

The frantic squawk, that Yato will deny to his dying day, resonates through the street, packed tight with people. Five seconds later, the sounds of sporadic gunfire scatters said crowd, and Yato and his Astra are the only ones left. That, and another, a girl in a frankly quite revealing outfit, standing on a rooftop.

God, Bishamonten loves to make a dramatic entrance.

"Y24-S01! I have been tasked with your retrieval! Cease to resist, or you will be exterminated verily!"

She also talked like a fucking robot.

* * *

Yukine was running. He wasn't particularly good at it, seeing as he was barely keeping himself from tripping over the constantly shifting ground, but he was a good bit faster than the people behind him, who weren't looking for _him_, per se, but the jar in his hand. He was at a disadvantage, however, considering he only had one SoulSense, the most basic of them all.

People, like usual, were not getting out of their way, so Yukine's lack of SoulSenses were compensated by his small size. Except he was so busy checking behind him at the snarly men in white suits that he didn't notice when he bumped straight into someone in a... jersey?

He did notice the faint smell of smoke, however.

"Fuck." He and the stranger said in unison.

* * *

Hiyori had been seventeen when she met the runaway Astras. She had been seventeen when she acquired her final SoulSense, the day she met Kofuku Binbougami. She had been seventeen when her life had changed completely, thrown into chaos, and her family was slaughtered.

She also found out that she was into girls.

You learn something new everyday.

* * *

Kofuku 'Ebisu' Binbougami was a woman of many talents. She could rob you blind without you ever noticing, managed to switch from giggly airhead to the scariest motherfucking thing you've ever seen, and also happened to be a non-bound Astra.

Not that she didn't love Daikoku. The man could _cook._ She just... didn't love him like that.

Then she met Hiyori, and suddenly found out why everyone likes pink so much.

* * *

Explosions are never the way to start your day. They're especially unwelcome at three in the morning. But do criminals care? No. They'll set off dynamite whenever they fucking want and damn the consequences.

Bishamonten muttered grumpily to herself as she picked up her ringing interceptor, flicked through it, and then stopped in horror.

"Y24-S01: ESCAPED- Y24-S02: ESCAPED- B7-K01: ESCAPED- B7-K02: ESCAPED"

Underneath "Y24-S01" was Yato's face.

* * *

_Most chapters will be this short, sorry if you wanted more._

_~Nivena_


	3. Trigger

A/N: It's 2:30 AM and it's been a year since i ever updated a single story, so enjoy.

* * *

They say that there are only five SoulSenses. One for each soulmate.

They are liars.

There is a sixth SoulSense, that manifests differently depending on disposition, and can be only acquired when a God meets their Astra.

* * *

She got sight when she was born, like everyone else. Her mother's touch, the first thing she had ever felt.

When handed to her father, she gained hearing, and with that, began to scream her little lungs out.

Yama provided her with taste, and they shared a pastry on a rooftop that summer morning.

She bumped into a man on the street who gave her touch (and also turned out to be a God, which had to be the _strangest_ Tuesday of her life), and his companion completed her set by giving her smell.

Well, she had thought her set was complete. Until she met Kofuku.

* * *

A mother's touch, if you could call Izanami a mother, gave him his sight.

His father gave him feeling. If you asked_ him_, his father gave him pain.

His first taste was when Bishamonten punched him in the face, the thick iron tang of blood flooding his senses.

Hearing was given to him by Kofuku Binbougami.

Smell was won off a chance meeting with Ms. Iki Hiyori.

And his Astra gave him the greatest gift of all.

* * *

It was certainly an unusual case. All of them were, really, but this one was strange. Kofuku had already acquired all six SoulSenses, with Daikoku as her bonded Astra. She had believed that once a pair was bonded, nothing but death would separate them. And she knew for a fact that only Gods and Astras were given sixth senses.

Iki Hiyori simply continued to defy reason.

* * *

The only SoulSense he had ever gotten before meeting his God was sight, and that was because absolutely nobody was born blind. You had to be birthed somehow, and it didn't matter if your mother walked out on you the second you plopped out of her uterus. She pulled you into this world, kicking and screaming, and that certainly impacted your life forever. And so, absolutely everyone was born with sight.

Yukine, however, was _only_ given sight.

Apparently, cases like him and Yato were a bit like having six fingers. Undeniably, they were strange, but not harmful or _bad_ in any way. It just wasn't something that happened every day.

Yato was responsible for three different senses given to Yukine. Yato took the place of three different people in his life.

* * *

Sight was given to her by Izanami, like all Gods.

Her father, smell.

Yato (damn that evil bastard), touch.

Tenjin, hearing

Kofuku, taste.

Kazuma, power.


	4. Fall

_A/N: I'll finish this, even if it fuckin kills me. Also, you guys don't understand exactly how important the reviews are. The only reason this isn't festering in the rapidly growing indefinite (read: never going to end) hiatus pile is because of your reviews. Also Noragami deserves more AUs and more finished AUs just think of all you can do with it!_

* * *

"Kofuku! Think for a second, you can't keep every stray that walks in!"

"But he's hurt!"

Yato stared at the ground, head bowed, as the pair argued above it. Blood dripped unpleasantly from his knuckles, turning the inside of his hoodie pocket sticky and tacky, and his knife's hilt dug into his hip.

"Will you really risk inviting a murderer into this home?"

* * *

He's only two years older. It's not strange, or illegal. Well, Yato's 18, so it's a little illegal. But he's an immature eighteen, so it doesn't count, and for that matter, they're glorified prison escapees. What's another offense on the rap sheet?

* * *

It's disconcerting, to see a child kill. How did the quote go again?

Ah.

_"Children without a childhood are tragic."_

Fujisaki watches his children play.

* * *

They've been partners for three years. _Bonded_ partners. Generally speaking, bonded partners are fated to be, destined, written in the stars, whatever.

The point is, Yukine has a big fucking crush on his partner.

* * *

They say that the number thirteen is auspicious. Or unlucky, depending on who you are. Either way, a week after his thirteenth birthday, Yato left his home and never looked back.

* * *

It's the small mannerisms, the tilt of his head or the brightness of his smile. The blue of his eyes, and the casually adjusted scarf.

It's the was he's so hopelessly in love.

* * *

There's a sick _squelch_ as Yato slides the knife out. The man, a corrupt police officer, slides to the ground, his blood seeping into the snow. The fourteen year old stares dispassionately at his feet, noticing the wear and tear. He'd need to ditch the boots soon, maybe steal from his next victim.

* * *

There was a bit of innocence about the teenager, a slight naivety despite almost being an adult.

Yato was certainly a good fighter, of course, being a designated Combat-oriented God, but Yukine got the feeling that Yato wasn't quite the type to enjoy wanton bloodshed and war.

* * *

It would be years before Yato realized what he had with Nora was incredibly unusual and unprecedented. The ability to mimick a bond without the necessary affection was unheard of, thought to be impossible.

But the angry red scars and welts on Nora actually served a purpose.

The rejected stray could belong to anyone.

* * *

_A/N: ridiculously short, i know. mostly Yato's backstory + setting up the Y2 romance._


	5. Trilogy

_A/N: the plot! is finally picking up! we're pretty much halfway through. first half was set up + characters, this half will be plot! (out of order too, should be fun). Also, at time of writing, the entire story (excluding epilogue) is already written! how cool is that!_

* * *

It's a cold day when Hiyori and Kofuku meet. More accurately, Kofuku stumbles over Hiyori's body. She's lying on the ground, hands stuffed into her little pink hoodie, and both of their worlds explode into color.

* * *

Daikoku is a little suspect of her, especially when her tail, tucked Rin Okumura-style into her clothes, falls out. She quickly proves her worth, however, when Kofuku's dumplings burn and she rushes with him to salvage everything she can.

Kofuku beams behind them. When she makes eye contact with her loyal, yet unbonded partner, she gestures, almost as saying:

_"See, we can be a family again!"_

* * *

Yato and Yukine were taken on a hot June day, by men in western business suits. The hold each other's hands and walked into the armored van, together.

* * *

It's a little stressful, having a half-asura around. The war serves to breed hatred and violence, which normally would be a feast for Hiyori, just not when it is directed at her. Living in a poor suburbia provides her with enough fear and sin to keep her well-fed, but the constant affirmation of inhumanity is a bit too much to bear.

The fact that the weapon of a poverty god lives off misfortune does not escape her notice.

* * *

They must say goodbye to Kofuku and her Astras, with the half-hearted promise of "May our fates intertwine".

All they have is a assortment of skills and quick-cash jobs, running from town to town, Bishamonten's wrath not far behind.

* * *

A small yellow eye adorns the door of their home. An attempt to rattle the three, no doubt.

Yellow, for Asura. Yellow, for sickness and evil.

It raises the question, however. Who knows about Hiyori?

* * *

It took hiding in a cellar, a lifetime's worth of pretending to be normal, and the sacrifice of two teenagers to keep Daikoku and Kofuku from falling to the draft. Daikoku will be damned if anything makes them lose their freedom again.

* * *

Yato thinks it was luck that there happened to be a maintenance problem.

He thinks, because of that, there weren't enough guards in the hallways between him and his Astra.

He thinks he and Yukine were the only two to break out that day.

Fujisaki knows he is wrong.

* * *

Hiyori notices an odd girl who appears in her periphery vision. She can't quite put her finger on what is off about the girl's appearance, and her smile seems friendly enough. She takes a moment to put down the laundry basket before turning around. When she does, the girl is gone. In her place, a large mask with a single yellow eye on it.

A yellow eye. The universal symbol for Asura. While she tries to absorb this, she finally realizes what exactly threw her off about the girl. She wore her kimono right over left.

Corpse-style.

* * *

When they first get an anonymous text, they are in too much fear to think much of it. Yato reasons later, even if it was just to mess with them, there was no harm in leaving town anyways. Safe over sorry, and all that. Any matter, they narrowly escaped a fight with the vengeful Goddess, and managed to relax and be comfortable enough to begin to get curious.

Yukine is obsessed with figuring out who exactly is who keeps saving them from certain death. When they curl up, back to back, in alleyways for the night, he spends the hours before sleep claims him searching for a way to triangulate the signals, to trace the id and figure out the identity of their mysterious savior. Yato watches the rain drip off pipes, thinks of an empty smile and a stray's ploy, and thinks he already knows.

* * *

"The natural enemy of Gods and Astras, the Asura are fierce denizens of the underworld. Two months ago, they rose from Izanami's cages to feed off human misery in our own world. This invasion led to the draft, requiring every parahuman in the entire world to join. The ethics of this decision are still being debated, stemming from the answer to one question: Are Gods and Astras really huma-"

Kofuku turns off the television. The news wasn't very new, anyways.

* * *

Yato and Yukine return as always, bloodied this time, with horror stories of terrifying experiments and forced bonds, Astras and Gods abused and broken and reforged into weapons.

Yato admits to cold-blooded murder, to using his power to cut and retie and force bonds, while Yukine grips his arm next to him.

Again, Kofuku welcomes a killer into her house with open arms.

* * *

Nora smiles at her brother.

"The war is about to end." She proclaims, perched on a wall. "Father's going to fix it. He's going to kill _all _the Asura."

Yato looks away.


	6. Warrior

_A/N: guys guys guys look it's finishing up!_

* * *

Bishamonten is nothing if not determined. She lived through the murder of her family, and she came out on top. She can track down this good for nothing killer, even if it kills her.

It galls her, so much, though. The second-rate combat god is no match for her, and they both know that. He must be getting an advantage somehow. Maybe informants? Contract kills for money?

She is so consumed in her thoughts that she doesn't notice the girl in the corpse's kimono, watching her.

* * *

Kugaha is a doctor. He knows the ins and outs of medicine, he can list cures and engineer fixes to almost any disease imaginable.

Even rarer, he is a doctor without many scruples.

* * *

Everyone is smiling. Nobody is sad. Nobody knows the meaning of sad.

* * *

Sometimes, if they are absolutely, unconditionally positive that they can return without drawing any attention, the two teenagers may return to Kofuku's house.

As much as Daikoku may splutter, there will always be a hot meal and a bed waiting for the two there. He may not say it much, but the days they can stay are also the most treasured memories he has.

Watching the two happy couples in love, trying their hardest to ignore the war raging around them.

* * *

Her family was killed by a fourteen year old boy with ice blue eyes. All the Astras that swore allegiance to her, all the people she said she would protect, _gone_ in the blink of an eye. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about that.

They may not have been bonded to her, but she could feel them being extinguished, one by one, and could feel her world grow dimmer as well.

She swore revenge.

* * *

It was pure coincidence that Yato overheard the guards speaking about a major plumbing mishap. He wasn't stupid, he knew what that meant. Enough guards and personnel at the base would be required that the only ones left would be simply for show.

He made his move.

* * *

Kazuma quickly thumbed off a text, jogging to keep up with his bonded Goddess.

_3:18 PM- Bishamonten is in Nakano, headed east for Shinjuku. Go north._

"Who were you talking to?" She asked curiously, shrugging on her jacket.

"Just telling Suzuha to take care of the little ones while we're gone," he lied, a smile on his face.

* * *

Yato swore. He'd hoped that the bustling metropolis of Shinjuku would provide at least some cover, but Bishamonten did not get where she was by being stupid. On impulse, he did something he never had before.

_3:20 PM- Thank you._

_3:21 PM- Don't bother. I'm repaying an old debt._

Well. That's one mystery solved.

Yato reached over and woke up his partner.

* * *

Fujisaka smirked and emptied the contents of his glass into the ocean.

It has begun.


	7. Finale

_A/N: final chapter! well, epilogue after, but whatever, spirit remains. FINAL CHAPTER! can't believe this went from being pretty much dead and forgotten about to finished!_

* * *

**Yato and Yukine**

It was only a matter of time before she caught up to them. In Toshiro, where they upturned several market stands, the force of Bishamonten's energy blasts, guided by Kazuma, proved to be too much for the two teenagers.

"Sekki!" Yato screamed Yukine's true name, feeling the warmth and strength as the bare blade of Yukine fit into his hands. It was all he could do to stave off the bright bursts of light, and the two were already tiring.

"Would you," Yato stopped to pant a little, "mind considering a surrender?"

* * *

The detainment cell was cold and odorous, reminiscent of their time in the army. When Bishamonten arrived in front of them, staring from the other end of the bars, Yukine finally looked up.

"Bitch-monten," He greeted her. Yato couldn't help but stifle a laugh at the childishness of the insult. The Goddess appeared unaffected.

"Jeez, throwing us in jail? And I'm your soulmate, too." He added lazily, hoping for a less robotic reaction. This wasn't the Combat Goddess he knew so well. Something was wrong.

"You are not. You are a murderer." She replied, flatly, still staring at them with slight... was that contempt?

"Harsh," remarked Yukine.

"You wound me."

"She wounds you?"

"Why yes, she wounds me. We wouldn't be here if she didn't."

"True, true," Yukine conceded. "I still maintain that it's your fault we lost."

"Enough!" Bishamonten finally cracked, slapping the bars of the cell with her open palm. "Just tell me! Why did you kill them! Why did they deserve to die?"

The teenagers instantly sobered up. Yato ducked his head.

"You'll have to ask Kazuma."

* * *

There's an endless chain of bureaucracy, as there always is in anything government related. But finally, after two weeks of rotting in a cell with nothing but each other's company, Bishamonten opened the door.

"I don't completely forgive you. What you- what the both of you did was horrible," She opened. Yukine looked like he was about to snark at her, until Yato put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a look. "But, I see why you did it. I-" She cuts off, then hurriedly glanced about herself.

"There's someone here to see you."

* * *

**Hiyori, Daikoku, Kofuku**

Bishamonten visits them every once in a while, mostly by virtue of Kofuku being her soulmate. The two goddesses get along well enough that Bishamonten helped them hide from the draft, and even now, tends to take time out of her day to deliver news to the three.

Today, she had much more than simple news.

"The war has been declared officially over," she said, in a hushed tone. "And a human, a man named Fujisaki, has petitioned to release Yato and Yukine. He's scheduled a visit with them in two days. I just thought you might want to know."

* * *

The corpse girl was being sighted with more and more frequency, the sicker and sicker Hiyori got. Coincidentally, after the war was declared over, positive emotions were beginning to rise again. Everyone in the streets was sporting a smile, cheerful and bright after the blight of the war had passed.

As awful as it was, Hiyori's only source of food was Daikoku and Kofuku's sadness at watching her waste away.

* * *

**Bishamonten and Kazuma**

The two soulmates stood side by side, watching the men they'd spent so long to capture, walk free. Kazuma couldn't put his finger on it, but something felt different. It felt like the world was waking up, turning on it's side, everything changing too fast, too damn fast.

He wondered what he'd say to the newly freed man. What he'd say once all of this was over and done with.

"Thank you." He whispers as Yato walks by in chains. It would have to do.

* * *

Everyone is smiling, ever since two days ago, when the war was officially declared over. Everyone smiling, but her.

The rug was pulled out from under her. She was thrown for a loop. The man, a soulmate who murdered her clan, was put up to it by another of her soulmates. What do you even say to that?

As it turned out, she wouldn't need to. That fateful December day, when the pair were freed, would be the last time she would ever see them again. The last time she'd ever see Yato again.

* * *

**Kugaha and Aiha**

He's considered one of the best doctors in the world for a reason. He, the embodiment of precision (to such a degree that his Astra form is even a set of scales), used to be the formost mind in the medical field. Before he was outed as a traitor, he was the physician of every major god that Japan had to offer. Now?

Well, now, he was about to save the world.

* * *

She was always his assistant. Not clever or intelligent enough to take the reigns for herself, but still, the girl under his wing. She took the fall with him when they were convicted of treason, she benefited when the human with his artificial Astras and Asuras broke them out. She would always be there, standing to his left, questioning everything slightly, but not enough to speak. Yet still, it bore thought.

If there was no such thing as an Asura, then what was the need for an Astra?

* * *

**Nora**

Father was always right. Brother didn't know that, but he would now. It was sad that it would have to come to this, though. She really liked Brother. Too bad he got that trashy Astra instead of her. She was sleek, a simple katana with all the ocean's fury behind her. He was just a blade, no hilt, with nothing special _at all _about him. Brother never did have very good sense. Perhaps that's why he deserted.

* * *

_The war is over. Everyone smiles._

* * *

**Fujisaki**

His poor, deluded son. Fujisaki had hoped that he'd come back, but he walked out and never turned around. Even got himself a bonded, and Fujisaki had to curl his lip a little. It wasn't _proper_ for two men to be bonded. A God was always male, his exemplary Astra was always female. It was just how it worked.

Well, not anymore. There wouldn't ever be social conduct for Gods and Astras ever again. There wouldn't _be _Gods or Astras ever again.

He smiles when his son looks up and flinches. It had just finished snowing, the powder crushed beneath both of their feet.

"Son." He greets genially. "You got a boyfriend, and won't even bring him to meet your father?"

"Father?" The Astra asks, surprised and worried. Fujisaki smiles even wider.

"He didn't tell you? He ran away when he was little. Decided I wasn't the father for him. Didn't you, _Yaboku_?"

Yato cringes at the usage of his true name. The Astra looks at him strangely. "Yaboku?" He questions, growing a little hysterical.

"His name for me." Yaboku finally responded, voice hoarse.

"It doesn't do to keep secrets, Yaboku." He admonished, gesturing to Mizuchi.

"Stay close, Yukine." Yaboku barked, gesturing to his Astra. He must have noticed. Pity.

"Do you know why this war has raged on for millennia?" Fujisaki begins, struggling to keep his smile in place. "It's because neither of you _want it to end_. Without Asura, there is no point to an Astra, there is no point to a God. We barely tolerate your presence anyways, and the _only_ reason we keep your miserable, freakish asses around is because you're useful in a fight against Asura!"

He pauses for a second, tones down the fever-pitch. It wouldn't do to lose his cool, this close to the end game.

"The war is over. And it wasn't a God or an Astra who ended it. It was _me_. A _human_."

Mizuchi comes skipping over at his gesture, standing at his side.

"Come, Sek-"

"_SILENCE._" Fujisaki roars, forcibly activating Mizuchi's power. A short katana appears in his grip, and he levels it at the Astra. Yaboku becomes very still, allowing Fujisaki to regain his composure.

"Did you _really _think it was an _accident_ that there happened to be a plumbing mishap that day? Did you think it was an _accident_ you managed to break out? An _accident_ that it took so long for Bishamonten to catch you? I was there all along, in the places you were too stupid to look in. And did you _really _think you were the only one to escape that day?"

He pauses, watches everything he said sink in. The look of horror his son gives him is one he will savor for the rest of his days.

"I engineered _everything. _I saved the goddamn world. I broke out Bishamonten's traitor doctor, and he was so eager to prove himself, so tractable and hopelessly loyal, that he murdered the twelve point seven million people in Japan that were allergic to drugs. _Because I said so_.

"The body count has upped to seven hundred million. A small price to pay, however, and nobody notices, anyways. They're all too busy being happy. They're _only _happy. That's how you do it, you see. You starve out the enemy. Asura live off human sin and sadness? Drug everyone to the gills, until they're so giddy, they can't remember they're supposed to be in mourning."

"You _bastard_." Yaboku spits, murderous. Fujisaki continues, enjoying the feeling, watching his son crumble in defeat.

"It took three months for Bishamonten to finally capture you. Those three months served to keep all four of you busy, keep you from meddling or poking your nose where it doesn't belong. Your friends got too spooked to do any investigation of their own. Three months, and then finally, Kugaha was done. Anti-depressants, dumped into the water, spread through air, water, and physical contact. Passed down, mother to child, and it overwrites _every single emotion_ but happiness. It took three days to dose all of Japan. Three weeks, the rest of the world.

"And now, there's no more Asura. There's nothing left for them to feast on. Of course, I need to retain my lucidity, as the ruler of this new nation. And, my first order? Kill all the Astras and Gods. Earth is for humans, after all."

"Burn in hell," his son replies.

A quick flick of his wrist, and the Astra has a sizeable gash in his throat. Before Yaboku could react, he drives Mizuchi into the God's gut.

_That was rather-_

Fujisaki would never learn exactly what that experience was. He snapped Mizuchi's blade in half, leaving both edges bleeding out into the ground as he walked away.

* * *

**Yato**

He feels it, the very instant Yukine's throat is cut. Is this what Bishamonten felt? This terrible tug and burn at his gut and his heart and his throat? Or is it because of the hole in his stomach. His final thoughts are jumbled, disorganized. Finally, he succumbs, lets his thoughts peter out of existence.

He lies bleeding out on the ground, listening to the crunch of the snow as humanity marches on.

* * *

_A/N: final epilogue chapter after this. I can't WAIT._


	8. Aftermath

_A/N: I can't believe this short AU story is finally done! It went from dead!fic to completed I'M SO PROUD_

* * *

Kofuku whistles as she weaves her way through the crush of mid-day shoppers on the weekend, frowning a little as she notices the sheer amount of them. Maybe it's a holiday coming up? She'll ask Hiyori when she gets home.

Suddenly, someone barrels right into her, knocking her off balance and almost upturning her groceries on the ground. She frowns in annoyance, and notices a small, perfectly cut out white circle, sitting on the floor next to her. She picks it up and almost drops it in surprise.

The image of a yellow eye stares back at her.

She turns hurriedly, attempting to catch a glimpse of whoever dropped the card. The eyes had stopped exactly when the war stopped, exactly when Yato and Yukine had never come home and Bishamonten had issued one final warning: The water is poisoned.

Suddenly, she feels the worst sensation. A burning in her gut, a physical pain in her throat.

_Hiyori is dead._

* * *

It was bound to happen, as Hiyori was weak and on her deathbed already. They were trying their hardest, and their pain, awfully enough, gave her the sustenance for life. It wasn't enough.

The anti-depressants in the water were draconian, only allowing one emotion to slip through. Unconditional, inappropriate, happiness.

And yet, here they were. Their supply of bottled water would last them another month or so, and yet, both had a cup of poisoned water in hand.

Anything was better than the pain of losing her bonded.

They drink.

* * *

_A/N: thank all of you so much for sticking with me through all of this!_


End file.
